Home Girls, 40th Anniversary Edition: A Black Feminist Anthology

Published by Rutgers University Press 2024

Home Girls, 40th Anniversary Edition

A Black Feminist Anthology

Edited by: Barbara Smith
With contributions by: Tania Abdulahad , Donna Allegra , Barbara A. Banks , Becky Birtha , Cenen , Cheryl Clarke , Michelle Cliff , Michelle T. Clinton , Willi (Willie) M. Coleman , Toi Derricotte , Alexis De Veaux , Jewelle L. Gomez , Akasha (Gloria) Hull , Patricia Spears Jones , June Jordan , Audre Lorde , Raymina Y. Mays , Deidre McCalla , Chirlane McCray , Pat Parker , Linda C. Powell , Bernice Johnson Reagon , Spring Redd , Gwendolyn Rogers , Kate Rushin , Ann Allen Shockley , Barbara Smith , Beverly Smith , Shirley O. Steele , Luisah Teish , Jameelah Waheed , Alice Walker and Renita J. Weems

https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978839038

Overview
Contents

About this book

Home Girls, the pioneering anthology of Black feminist thought, features writing by Black feminist and lesbian activists on topics both provocative and profound. Since its initial publication in 1983, it has become an essential text on Black women's lives and contains work by many of feminism's foremost thinkers. This edition features an updated list of contributor biographies and an all-new preface that provides Barbara Smith the opportunity to look back on forty years of the struggle, as well as the influence the work in this book has had on generations of feminists. The preface from the previous Rutgers edition remains, as well as all of the original pieces, set in a fresh new package.

Contributors: Tania Abdulahad, Donna Allegra, Barbara A. Banks, Becky Birtha, Cenen, Cheryl Clarke, Michelle Cliff, Michelle T. Clinton, Willi (Willie) M. Coleman, Toi Derricotte, Alexis De Veaux, Jewelle L. Gomez, Akasha (Gloria) Hull, Patricia Spears Jones, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Raymina Y. Mays, Deidre McCalla, Chirlane McCray, Pat Parker, Linda C. Powell, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Spring Redd, Gwendolyn Rogers, Kate Rushin, Ann Allen Shockley, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Shirley O. Steele, Luisah Teish, Jameelah Waheed, Alice Walker, and Renita J. Weems.

Author / Editor information

BARBARA SMITH is an author, activist, and independent scholar who has played a groundbreaking role in opening up a national cultural and political dialogue about the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender. She is the co-editor of Conditions: Five, The Black Women's Issue (with Lorraine Bethel); and All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies (with Akasha (Gloria) Hull and Patricia Bell-Scott). She is the general editor of The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (with Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Gloria Steinem), and is the co-author of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism (with Minnie Bruce Pratt and Elly Bulkin). A collection of her essays, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom was published by Rutgers University Press in 1998 and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and was a Nonfiction Award finalist for the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Book Award. Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, with Barbara Smith was published in 2014. It won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir/Biography and the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction from the Publishing Triangle. Smith was the cofounder and publisher of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. Publisher for women of color until 1995, and served two terms as a member of the Albany Common Council from 2006-2013. In 2005, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Reviews

“A provocative and important collection.”— Ms.

"The survival of these women and their joy makes Home Girls very satisfying."— Essence

"Home Girls is a repository of Black lesbian and feminist life, an animate archive that holds the breadth and depth of Black women’s intellectual and political acuity. Home Girls expands the episteme of Black Studies, offering a method to examine the simultaneity of oppression, a vision of freedom that eclipses captivity. Forty years later, this autopoietic text renews the life of Black Feminism, supplying us with incisive language for living."— Briona Simone Jones, editor of Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought

“Considered by many to be the essential book on feminism, Home Girls is a selection of profound essays penned by intriguing feminists as well as lesbian activists.”— VIBE

"It is fitting that Home Girls also reflects and celebrates the difference, among the [thirty-three] Black feminist writers, critics, and theorists assembled from the United States and the Caribbean, among Black women of all colors, classes, and cultures. More importantly, it reflects and celebrates our connections."— Women's Review of Books

"With its warm, inviting and endearing title, Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, this still classic work became foundational as it helped to develop a whole field in which generations of scholars learned the politics of coalition building, organizing, writing responsively and creatively about the Black woman’s experience in global contexts. The 'simultaneity of oppressions' logic which is its theoretical framework still provides an analytical model for assessing how these structures of power are even more clarified today but also how Black women have constantly challenged enforced locations."— Carole Boyce Davies, author of Black Women's Rights: Leadership and the Circularities of Power

“Groundbreaking…Though written years ago, Smith’s words are as valid today as they were then.”— Shondaland

"Home Girls is a book that has been saving lives and freeing communities for my entire lifetime. The Black Feminist revolutionary ethic and aesthetic that this book founds, documents and forwards is the best hope for survival and well-being that our species has. Read or re-read this book as if everything depends upon it. It does."
— Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals

“There is a profound need for those in communities that are taken for granted (or taken advantage of) to give voice to their joy, pain, and ambitions. Home Girls is a must-read for those who wish to understand, to grow, and to learn.”— Black Lesbian Literary Collective

"Pungent and varied, full of questions, convictions, and insights."— The Nation

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface to the 40th Anniversary Edition Barbara Smith Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Preface to the Rutgers University Press Edition Barbara Smith Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xxv
Introduction Barbara Smith Publicly Available Download PDF	xxvii
Poem Akasha Hull Publicly Available Download PDF	lxxi
The Blood—Yes, the Blood
For a Godchild, Regina, on the Occasion of Her First Love Toi Derricotte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
The Damned Toi Derricotte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Hester’s Song Toi Derricotte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
The Sisters Alexis De Veaux Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Debra Michelle T. Clinton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire Michelle Cliff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
The Blood—Yes, the Blood: A Conversation Cenen Smith and Barbara Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Something Latino Was Up with Us Spring Redd Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
I Used to Think Chirlane McCray Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
The Black Back-Ups Kate Rushin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Home Barbara Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Artists without Art Form
“Under the Days”: The Buried Life and Poetry of Angelina Weld Grimké Akasha Hull Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
The Black Lesbian in American Literature: An Overview Ann Allen Shockley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
“Artists without Art Form”: A Look at One Black Woman’s World of Unrevered Black Women Renita Weems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
I’ve Been Thinking of Diana Sands Patricia Jones Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
A Cultural Legacy Denied and Discovered: Black Lesbians in Fiction by Women Jewelle L. Gomez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
What It Is I Think She’s Doing Anyhow: A Reading of Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters1 Akasha Hull Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Black Lesbians—Who Will Fight for Our Lives but Us?
Tar Beach Audre Lorde Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Before I Dress and Soar Again Donna Allegra Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
LeRoy’s Birthday Raymina Y. Mays Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
The Wedding Beverly Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Maria de las Rosas Becky Birtha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Miss Esther’s Land Barbara A. Banks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community Cheryl Clarke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Where Will You Be? Pat Parker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
A Home Girls’ Album
Selected Photographs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
A Hell of a Place to Ferment a Revolution
Among the Things That Use to Be Willie M. Coleman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
From Sea to Shining Sea June Jordan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Women of Summer Cheryl Clarke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
The Tired Poem: Last Letter from a Typical Unemployed Black Professional Woman Kate Rushin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Shoes Are Made for Walking Shirley O. Steele Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Billy de Lye Deidre McCalla Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
The Combahee River Collective Statement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Black Macho and Black Feminism Linda C. Powell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Black Lesbian/Feminist Organizing: A Conversation Tania Abdulahad, Gwendolyn Rogers, Barbara Smith and Jameelah Waheed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
For Strong Women Michelle T. Clinton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	363
The Black Goddess Kate Rushin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
Women’s Spirituality: A Household Act Luisah Teish Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
Only Justice Can Stop a Curse Alice Walker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
Coalition Politics: Turning the Century Bernice Johnson Reagon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
List of Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	417
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	421
About the Editor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433